BARNES, JAMES WILLIAM

BARNES, JAMES WILLIAM (1815–1892). James William Barnes, religious leader and Confederate officer, was born in Georgia in 1815. Barnes was a prominent resident of Grimes County, Texas, by 1842. In that year he served on a committee which successfully established the first Masonic lodge in Grimes County at Anderson. In the spring of 1843 he was a leader in the effort to send relief supplies to the surviving members of the Mier Expedition who were imprisoned in Mexico. By 1854 Barnes was married to a Caroline A. Barnes. This couple produced five children. Barnes was an active Baptist, serving as an officer and treasurer of the Plantersville Baptist Church in Grimes County in the 1850s and 1860s. Barnes also served as a trustee for Baylor University at Independence, Washington County, in the early 1860s.

In August 1863 Barnes served as lieutenant colonel and later as colonel for the Fourth Infantry Regiment, State Troops. This militia unit was deployed for coastal defense duty in South Texas, and Barnes served in such capacity until the disbanding of the unit in March 1864. Following the Civil War, he returned to Anderson, where he continued to play a leading role in the religious life of Grimes and Washington counties. Barnes died in Grimes County on October 22, 1892, and was buried on his estate southeast of Anderson.